Fri Nov 26 2004

It’s funny how the busyness of the trains’ vary. All this week I have arrived at my local station at about the same time, got the same train into work, amd arrived at Leeds statation at about the same time. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday were fairly quiet – plenty of Metros left, platform not too crowded, one or two people standing by the time we got into Leeds. At Leeds, I sailed straight through the ticket barriers.

Yesterday, platform was heaving, all the Metros gone (one of my pet peeves), people were being turned away at the penultimate stop because there was no room, and Leeds station was jammed solid with people queueing just to show their tickets and get out!

I can’t for the life of my work out why this should be. The busy local train might be due to an earlier train being cancelled, but that wouldn’t explain the Metro‘s running out (other people on the platform had them, so it was that they hadn’t been delivered) – although if there had been a cancellation, I suppose some of them may have got bored and picked up a paper when they otherwise wouldn’t. Incidently – why doesn’t eveyone get one? ANYWAY, I know that the ticket barrier at Leeds was probably a coincidence of a few busy trains arriving at once, but to be honest queueing like that is my normal morning experience, and I was amazed not to have to on Monday through Wednesday. Is there some secret half holiday I don’t know about?